Circles Robinson, Author at Havana Times

What Exile Had Meant

When I was little I would watch all the women in my family crowd around in my grandmother’s room, where they would open packages containing underwear, shoes, hair ornaments and those types of things.

Camerata Romeu Plays Tango

Antonio Peruch, a classical Italian accordionist who resides in Canada, had dreamed for ages of playing in concert with this group founded 16 years ago and directed by Zenaida Romeu. (19 photos)

More Important Than Industries

This past December, the Cuban Ministry of Culture censored the Poesía sin Fin arts festival; though this event had taken place annually since 1999 in Havana’s outlying Alamar projects. The organization sponsoring the celebration was OMNI-ZONA FRANCA, and its coordinator Amaury Pacheco agreed to an interview with Havana Times.

With Cuba’s Doctors in Haiti

“We were told this was a very rough area, with a lot of crime when we learned where we would be working,” said Arnaldo Santa Cruz, a physical therapist from Havana. But with over 6 weeks in operation, the Cubans are respected and protected by Belair’s community.

Today, like every day, women with babies and their young children, grandmothers and the odd man, wait patiently to see one of the “Cuban doctors” as the entire group is known. At the end of a long morning diagnosing and treating acute respiratory infections, scabies, and other common conditions plaguing Port-au-Prince’s population, a young girl arrives with a too-small bundle swaddled in a towel.

Russian Culture and Me (II)

Cold winds blew at the end of 1989, a particularly biting spell for Havana. The sensation of loneliness gripped us all…a sensation that would last —in the sense of its newness and depth— for at least three more years.

Cuba Replaces Aeronautics Chief

The head of the Cuban Civil Aeronautics Institute is to be replaced, announced the Council of State on Monday. Brigade General Ramon Martinez will take over for General Rogelio Acevedo, the current president of the Institute. Martinez is the second in command at the Air Force.

Cuba’s Ghost Laws

The most frustrating thing is not being subjected to a law that one doesn’t know about, but being subjected to it even after finding out it doesn’t exist. Yet the immense majority of people in our country don’t ask where the laws appear. It’s enough to tell them: “You can’t do that” or “You can’t go into this.”